


The Dirt

by plain_and_simple_tailor (ectogeo)



Category: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Developing Relationship, Discussions of sex, F/F, F/M, Garak POV, Gardening, Gen, Julian/Miles (past), Keiko/Kira (past), Light Angst, M/M, Open Marriage, Sexual Imagery, garak is always a lil bit angsty, keiko and garak are bffs, keiko gives garak relationship advice, o'brien polycule, other relationships that are mentioned:, very suggestive descriptions of plants
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-12
Updated: 2021-03-12
Packaged: 2021-03-18 22:47:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29989977
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ectogeo/pseuds/plain_and_simple_tailor
Summary: Keiko gets the dirt on Garak’s budding new relationship with Julian.
Relationships: Elim Garak & Keiko O'Brien, Julian Bashir/Elim Garak, Keiko O'Brien/Miles O'Brien
Comments: 24
Kudos: 74





	The Dirt

Garak’s hand accidentally brushed across the touch-sensitive plant, and the petals began to bloom and unfurl. Just as easily as Julian had made him bloom last night.

He really was in no state to be gardening right now. Garak could hardly look anywhere in the arboretum without being reminded of last night. The cleft curves of the moba fruit dangling from the trees, ripe for the plucking, were enough to nearly undo him in the aftermath of what ripe flesh he had plucked. The pollen that stuck to his scales, and the downy white fluff bursting out of the Terran cattails, and the sticky sap that dripped from a hollow in a jumja fruit tree all conjured up images of Julian spilling his seed on and in him...

“What are you grinning about over there?” Keiko asked, wrist-deep in a nearby flowerbed.

Garak knew that there was hardly anything that could be called a grin on his face, but he supposed he had let his mask slip a little bit, had let his eyes unfocus, had let the corners of his lips curl upward infinitesimally.

“Oh, just remembering a pleasant conversation I had yesterday.”

He cast his gaze around the arboretum again to avoid meeting her eyes, but everything he landed on inevitably just reminded him of the enjoyable company of his dear Dr. Bashir, all contributing incrementally to the warmth building in him... Vines wrapped tightly around the bars of a trellis. Fungi that were vaguely phallic and an obscene shade of blue. An assortment of wild grasses that looked as soft as the fascinating hairs that coated mammalian bodies...

“Oh, I _see_...” she said knowingly. “Did Julian spend the night, then?”

As much as Garak valued privacy, he knew his amorous encounter with his dear Doctor wouldn’t stay secret for long on this gossip-starved station. Garak was also surprised to find that he actually _wanted_ Keiko to know that he was in love with Julian. For perhaps the first time in his life—his time on a Federation station having finally corrupted his good Cardassian morals—he didn’t feel ashamed of getting entangled in a romance, and he had a small number of people he cared about enough to want them to know about his personal life.

So he let himself form an actual smile in answer.

“Well, good for you!” She leaned toward him conspiratorially. “Miles tells me that Julian gives amazing head. Is it true? Or was he just trying to make me jealous?” she asked teasingly.

Garak hated to think about the friends with benefits arrangement Julian and Miles had had in the past. Garak and the Chief were not on good terms, even aside from the fact that Garak resented Miles for being the one, between the two of them, whom Julian had chosen to sleep with first.

He also didn’t understand how Keiko could so nonchalantly open up her marriage bed to anyone she or her husband wanted to bed. Was that common human behavior? If his relationship with Julian lasted, was this what he had to look forward to? Sleepless nights spent waiting for Julian to return smelling of someone else’s sweat, worrying whether sex with someone else would be good enough to make Julian realize he didn’t want Garak after all, worrying that he’d leave him for a new partner?

“Your husband was telling the truth,” Garak admitted, matching her conspiratorial tone. “And I daresay he was even underselling Julian’s abilities.”

She laughed and then sighed dramatically. “I guess I’ll have to keep practicing if I want to meet my husband’s high standards. We all have different skills, I suppose. Miles is actually much better with his fingers than his mouth. He’s an engineer after all—he needs to get his hands on something to understand how it works. But Kira on the other hand... Did you know Bajorans have ridges on their tongues too? I came so many times when she—”

“Please, spare me the salacious details, my dear.” Why did Keiko only seem to sleep with people who utterly despised him? It was her one flaw. But she couldn’t be blamed for it; Garak knew he was not particularly popular on the station. Or anywhere really.

Eager to divert Keiko away from further discussion of her and her husband’s sex lives, Garak filled the silence before it could linger. “May I ask… with your open relationship, how do you know your husband will always come back to you?”

She gave him a thoughtful look, and the amount of unearned kindness she was directing toward him made him almost regret allowing her to see so much of his vulnerability.

“Constant _honest_ communication,” she said. It was pointed. Keiko never sugarcoated anything. “And plenty of trust.”

“Were you never worried that Julian—for example—would tempt your husband away from you?”

“Sex is really only one part of our relationship, you know. We’ve built a life together. And Julian has never shown interest in participating in our domestic life, so don’t you worry about that,” she laughed, clearly understanding his actual question. When he didn’t look reassured, she added, “Julian _wants_ to be with you, Garak. He wants this to work out, just as much as you do.”

“And how exactly do you know that?”

“Just last week he gushed about you to Miles. Couldn’t stop talking about how excited he was for his date with you. Miles told me later that he wanted to be supportive, so he just kept listening, but I think it got a little too explicit for his poor ears. He said he was in _agony_ when Julian started going on about how sexy he thinks your scales are.” Keiko rolled her eyes at her husband’s dramatics, and Garak smiled at Miles’ discomfort on his behalf. And it was impossibly flattering that Julian was so attracted to him that he couldn’t stop talking about him with his friends. The petals of the flowers nearest to him were the color of Julian’s tongue, and he remembered the feeling of it, warm and wet, on his body, and Julian had apparently been enjoying the sensation just as much as he had...

“I reminded Miles that he can end up in uncomfortable conversations if he doesn’t draw clear boundaries,” Keiko added.

Garak’s giddiness evaporated at the mention of boundaries and the reminder of the potentially difficult conversation he’d have to have with Julian about his own. “Even if Julian wants to be with me, how can I demand so much from him? How can I ask him to limit himself to just me?”

“No matter what Julian’s been open to in the past, I’m sure he’ll respect what _you_ want your relationship to be like and won’t see it as limiting... but he can only do that if you actually _tell him_ what you want. He’s not Betazoid.”

“And I am eternally grateful that he can’t read my mind.” _If he could, then he’d know better than to trust me, or forgive me._ The thought lanced through his mind. After everything he’d done in Cardassia’s name, he didn’t deserve even the smallest amount of happiness, let alone the love of such a kind, caring, _good_ person as Julian...

“Thinking dirty thoughts about him that often, huh?” Keiko teased. It was such a contrast to what had been going through Garak’s mind just then—but was also so undeniably _true_ —that he laughed aloud, completely taken aback.

“Precisely, my dear. I’m afraid it simply can’t be helped,” Garak said, raising the back of his hand to his head in exaggerated suffering. “In fact, this affliction is getting so out of control that perhaps I need to see a doctor about it...”

She snorted.

They fell back into companionable chatter about the ideal soil conditions for various Terran and Cardassian flowers, and which of the recently married station personnel had commissioned the least stylish bridesmaid dresses, and which Cardassian vocabulary Miles was currently most annoyed at Garak for having taught Molly last time he babysat.

As they made plans for their next gardening and gossip session—set for the day after their partners’ next holosuite adventure so that they could complain to each other about how irresponsibly late their partners had stayed out the previous night—Garak knew he didn’t deserve Keiko’s friendship either. But he was thankful to have it.

**Author's Note:**

> Keiko and Garak’s mutual interests include: gardening, not wanting to be on this goddamn space station, and tormenting Miles O’Brien. Garak & Keiko’s friendship is also just a support group for people whose partners are gamers haha
> 
> Big thanks to both [Primal_Nexus](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Primal_Nexus/pseuds/Primal_Nexus) and [the_last_dillards](https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_last_dillards/pseuds/the_last_dillards) for all of their editing and brainstorming help! <3
> 
> Also, if you want more amazing fics with Garak&Keiko as gardening bffs, I highly recommend [Thigmotropia](https://archiveofourown.org/works/29691549) by [AsgardianAngels](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AsgardianAngels/pseuds/AsgardianAngels) and [Flowers for Julian](https://archiveofourown.org/works/28502034/chapters/69838884) by [TouchingOldMagic](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TouchingOldMagic/pseuds/TouchingOldMagic). (Garak&Keiko plant bffs is, like, the default fic prompt I use whenever I get the chance to request a fic hehehe.)


End file.
